Mystery 2: The Mysterious Music of Rosemary Brown

Rosemary Brown was a London housewife who created new musical compositions that she claimed were in fact written by the channeled spirits of gifted—yet demonstrably deceased—composers such as Beethoven, Chopin, and Bach. Brown, who had long believed she had psychic powers, wrote in her autobiography Unfinished Symphonies that when she was seven years old, the ghost of composer Franz Liszt appeared and told her that he would work with her in the future.


Decades later he did just that, she claimed, and Brown achieved a height of popularity in the 1970s. After Liszt’s visit, a parade of famous, dead musicians supposedly visited Brown, creating new works through her (curiously, all the composers learned to speak English after their deaths, thus allowing Brown to understand their musical direction and dictation).


Rosemary Brown’s supporters claimed that her music was too complex to have been created by the musically untrained Brown alone, and that her music displayed an uncanny understanding of the nuances in famous composers’ works. One of Brown’s defenders, British composer Richard Rodney Bennett, noted, “if she is a fake… she must have had years of training.” While some experts were impressed, others concluded that the works were merely hack imitations done in the style of the old masters, or variations on extant compositions. Her New York Times obituary noted the “tidal waves of more or less good-natured ridicule from most of the music establishment.” Rodger Anderson, in his book Psychics, Sensitives, and Somnambulists, notes that Brown “later began receiving material from dead artists, writers, scientists, and philosophers, to which critical reaction was similarly mixed.” Brown refused to ask the spirits any verifiable, falsifiable information that would help prove that the dead did indeed speak through her.


Various theories were proposed to explain her ability. Brown maintained that she had never had any musical training aside from a few piano lessons, and Brown’s musical skill was such that she was unable to play many of the pieces she claimed had been dictated to her by the ghosts. It was suggested that she may have had advanced musical training but then forgotten it in a bad case of amnesia. This suggestion was described as “preposterous” by the Browns’ family doctor.


Rosemary was investigated by both musicians and psychologists. None could find any way in which she could be cheating. One idea was that the composers had left behind them unknown, written music and that Rosemary was able to read these sheets, unwittingly using a form of telepathy. Another suggestion was that she picked up music from people around her by telepathy.


How do you think she did it?


Good luck, Sherlocks!

im not sure but....

is it possible that she may have had help from a living person who knew about music?

did she find some old papers with it written down on and decide to use them and pretend it was ghosts?

did she read books about music and taught herself about how to do it without anyone knowing? im sure they had libraries around back then as it was only about 30 years ago

were these new songs completely different, or just notes from other songs mixed together?

If Mozart was still roaming about the ether I think he'd be enjoying popular culture and knocking out a few concertos for synths and strings.

Mystery 2: The Mysterious Music of Rosemary Brown

Rosemary Brown was a London housewife who created new musical compositions that she claimed were in fact written by the channeled spirits of gifted—yet demonstrably deceased—composers such as Beethoven, Chopin, and Bach. Brown, who had long believed she had psychic powers, wrote in her autobiography Unfinished Symphonies that when she was seven years old, the ghost of composer Franz Liszt appeared and told her that he would work with her in the future.

Decades later he did just that, she claimed, and Brown achieved a height of popularity in the 1970s. After Liszt’s visit, a parade of famous, dead musicians supposedly visited Brown, creating new works through her (curiously, all the composers learned to speak English after their deaths, thus allowing Brown to understand their musical direction and dictation).

Rosemary Brown’s supporters claimed that her music was too complex to have been created by the musically untrained Brown alone, and that her music displayed an uncanny understanding of the nuances in famous composers’ works. One of Brown’s defenders, British composer Richard Rodney Bennett, noted, “if she is a fake… she must have had years of training.” While some experts were impressed, others concluded that the works were merely hack imitations done in the style of the old masters, or variations on extant compositions. Her New York Times obituary noted the “tidal waves of more or less good-natured ridicule from most of the music establishment.” Rodger Anderson, in his book Psychics, Sensitives, and Somnambulists, notes that Brown “later began receiving material from dead artists, writers, scientists, and philosophers, to which critical reaction was similarly mixed.” Brown refused to ask the spirits any verifiable, falsifiable information that would help prove that the dead did indeed speak through her.

Various theories were proposed to explain her ability. Brown maintained that she had never had any musical training aside from a few piano lessons, and Brown’s musical skill was such that she was unable to play many of the pieces she claimed had been dictated to her by the ghosts. It was suggested that she may have had advanced musical training but then forgotten it in a bad case of amnesia. This suggestion was described as “preposterous” by the Browns’ family doctor.

Rosemary was investigated by both musicians and psychologists. None could find any way in which she could be cheating. One idea was that the composers had left behind them unknown, written music and that Rosemary was able to read these sheets, unwittingly using a form of telepathy. Another suggestion was that she picked up music from people around her by telepathy. How did she do it?

Hints and Clues

1) Brown did not achieve her fame and fortune because no one else alive could have created the compositions. Instead, Brown was notable because her compositions were supposedly from the dead—strongly supported by the claim that she had little or no musical ability or training.

2) “…if she is a fake… she must have had years of training.” Could she have had years of training? That assumption that needs to be more closely investigated.

3) Rosemary Brown’s supporters claimed that her music displayed an uncanny understanding of the nuances in famous composers’ works. Yet such observations are quite subjective, and may be a case of people seeing what they wish or expect to see (or, in this case, hearing what they wish to hear). Art students are often taught how to create by imitating well-known works of art. While most adept students’ compositions would never be mistaken for the master’s original, occasionally a gifted student produces a work that duplicates the original in style and content. In fact, over the years, many pieces of art that were once universally credited to a famous artist have been found to be done by gifted students or even forgers.

4) Brown refused to ask the spirits any verifiable, falsifiable information that would help prove that the dead did indeed speak through her. Why?

5) Many aspects of Brown’s early life are vague (including her musical education and even her birthdate, which was probably 1916 but cited by various sources cite as 1917 or 1938). Brown’s claims would have been far more believable had she begun producing the dead composers’ work as a teenager. Instead, Brown had nearly fifty years to study and practice before “suddenly” channeling decomposing composers.

6) Note the outlandish “skeptical” explanations of amnesia and telepathy.

7) Brown seems to have told several different stories about just how much musical training she had. Some sources, such as Jon Klimo’s 1987 book Channeling, claim that Brown “had no musical education.” Brown’s Wikipedia entry claims that she had taken one year of piano lessons, while the New York Times noted “three years of piano lessons.”

The fact that the music establishment largely ignored her is interesting, and we’d want to know much more about the depth and breadth of the investigations into her abilities.




Solution

Using the principle of Occam’s Razor, the most likely explanation is simply that Brown exaggerated her musical ineptitude. It seems that this crucial issue was never fully investigated, and it’s possible Brown had many years of training and practice that she declined to reveal. According to a piece in the September 2005 issue of the Investigator (Australia), Brown eventually “admitted to belonging to a musical household and being a competent musician and pianist.” The mystery vanishes; she was a talented musician who hid or downplayed her abilities. No need to invoke any supernatural abilities.